The Lexington-Fayette County Health Department tested 12 people Tuesday as part of National Gay Men’s HIV/AIDS Awareness Day. Staff members John Moses, Julie Moon, Beth Stroupe, Maressa Starks-Baker and Lynnsey McGarrh and student Amber Marshall worked under a tent in the parking lot to hand out coffee and doughnuts, as well as provide the tests. Congratulations to our team on a successful first event and for helping Lexington residents know their status!

The Unity Potluck, hosted on August 31 by the EEO Diversity committee, was a huge success! We had 76 employees attend the event and 36 dishes submitted from around the world. Thank you to all the staff that brought a dish and/or photographs of their travels! Coming soon… more information about the EEO Diversity committee and a new look!

Most of you have heard of Zappos. They are an online shoe company. They are known for putting customers first, which is aided by a happy and engaged workforce. Please enjoy this short video about the Zappos culture which is defined by their core values.

On Monday, you will receive an invitation to take a survey. This survey will ask you what you believe the values of our organization should be. As we go throughout our day, serving clients, the community, and each other, what values should we exhibit?

Your responses will be the foundation of an activity at the all-staff meeting that will ultimately end in the adoption of a set of values that all staff have contributed to.

I hope you all have taken time over the past few days to think about values and what they mean to LFCHD.

In the past, the organization had defined their values as Respect, Accountability, Integrity, Loyalty, and Service. Do these still apply today? Are these the values that we need to adopt to achieve our mission and vision?

I thought I would share the values of different health departments with you today:

Northern Kentucky Health Department also defines how their health department shows these values every day:

Respect: We embrace diversity and approach all people and ideas with dignity and open minds.

Excellence: We strive to meet customer and community needs by providing the highest quality services, with a highly skilled workforce, through individual efforts and teamwork.

Adaptability: We creatively apply technology, information, research and resources to effectively respond to the changing environment and changing needs of those we serve.

Linkage: We form and maintain internal and external relationships for the mutual benefit of the community through collaboration and the sharing of information, resources and ideas to achieve a common goal.

Integrity: We act with a consistency of character, and are forthright, open and accountable to our customers, our taxpayers and to each other for our action.

In a previous email we talked about the mission and vision of LFCHD. Now, we are going to transition to values. In order for us to have an understanding of values and why we have them I feel it is important for everyone to understand why the health department exists and what values are.

Why does the Lexington-Fayette County Health Department exist?

We exist so that we can work every day to strengthen the community by preventing illness and improving the health and well-being of its residents.

What is our purpose?

To prevent the start of disease and the spread of disease when it does occur.

To promote health communities through the promotion of better health and assuring access to quality health care service

To protect the community’s health and economic vitality through public health policy, such as the smoking laws, and community partnerships, such as LEX-CHIP.

What are values?

These are deeply ingrained principles that guide not only our standard of conduct, but guide our actions and set the foundation of our culture. They are what we use as a filter to ensure we are meeting our mission and striving towards our vision when making decisions for the community and agency.

Why do we have values in addition to our mission and vision?

We use values to guide our priorities as a health departments and everything that we do within the health department. Our values guide every decision, from how we treat patients to how we work with each other.

Can you guess what organization the values below belong to?

Reach

Learn

Di-bear-sity

Colla-bear-ate

Give

Cele-bear-ate

(Scroll down to reveal!)

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Did you guess Build-A-Bear? If you did, you are correct! Through their values they believe that the possibilities are endless and that you can REACH for the stars; That you should maximize your potential, LEARN from mistakes, and consider different angles; they embrace the value of DI-BEAR-SITY (diversity) at their company; they believe that their staff should COLLA-BEAR-ATE (collaborate); and that you should always GIVE a helping paw to fellow bears and to the community and CELE-BEAR-ATE (celebrate) successes of both teams and individuals.

I hope this got the wheels turning as you think about what values you think best fit LFCHD. But, hold on to those thoughts! Write them down! There is still more to come in the next week. Do you think you can figure out my next value challenge? Have a great day!